Infinitely Losing My Edge
Yeah, I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
The kids are coming up from behind.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids from Denmark and from Tehran.
But I was there.
I was there in 1970.
I was there at the first Onyeabor show in Enugu.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge to the kids whose footsteps I hear when they get on the decks.
I'm losing my edge to the internet seekers who can tell me every member of every good group from 1968 to 1974.
I'm losing my edge.
To all the kids in Johannesburg and Columbus.
I'm losing my edge to the art-school Paris kids in little jackets and borrowed nostalgia for the unremembered nineties.
I'm losing my edge.
I'm losing my edge.
I can hear the footsteps every night on the decks.
But I was there.
I was there in 1965 at the first Beefheart practice in a loft in Lancaster.
I was working on the marimba sounds with much patience.
I was there when David Bowie started up his first band.
I told him, "Don't do it that way. You'll never make a dime."
I was there.
I was the first guy playing The Smoke to the punk kids.
I played it at the Troubador.
Everybody thought I was crazy.
We all know.
I was there.
I was there.
I've never been wrong.
But I'm losing my edge to better-looking people with better ideas and more talent.
And they're actually really, really nice.
I'm losing my edge.
I heard you have a compilation of every good song ever done by anybody.
Every great song by John Foxx. All the underground hits.
All Ponytail tracks. I heard you have a vinyl of every The Searchers record on German import.
I heard that you have a white label of every seminal jazz hit - 1985, '86, '87.
I heard that you have a CD compilation of every good '50s cut and another box set from the '70s.
I hear you're buying a guitar and an arpeggiator and are throwing your macbook out the window because you want to make something real. You want to make a The Toasters record.
I hear that you and your band have sold your linndrum and bought an organ.
I hear that you and your band have sold your organ and bought a linndrum.
I hear everybody that you know is more relevant than everybody that I know.
But have you seen my records?
Gil Scott-Heron & Brian Jackson,
Sight & Sound,
Essential Logic,
Terror Squad Feat. Camron,
Smog,
The Kinks,
Soul II Soul,
John Lydon,
Radio Birdman,
Slick Rick,
Pet Shop Boys,
Lou Reed & Metallica,
Dr. Dre and Snoop Doggy Dog,
The Saints,
Eli Mardock,
The Birthday Party,
Schoolly D,
Yaz,
Michelle Simonal,
Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band,
Judy Mowatt,
Radiohead,
Pete Rock & C.L. Smooth,
Ludus,
Malaria!,
Peter Gordon & Love of Life Orchestra,
Rites of Spring,
Graham Central Station,
Notorious Big And Bone Thugs,
Red Lorry Yellow Lorry,
Harpers Bizarre,
Marc Romboy vs. Booka Shade,
The Detroit Cobras,
R.M.O.,
Donny Hathaway,
Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds,
Circle Jerks,
Steve Hackett,
Sonny Sharrock,
The Star Department,
Sad Lovers and Giants,
Eric Copeland,
Funkadelic,
The Toasters,
Anakelly,
Avey Tare & Kría Brekkan,
Sticky Fingaz feat. Raekwon,
Peter & Gordon,
10cc,
The Blues Magoos,
Joy Division,
Wally Richardson,
The Smoke,
Bobby Byrd,
Roy Ayers Ubiquity,
The Invisible,
The Slits,
Monks,
The Fugs,
DNA,
Avey Tare,
Jesper Dahlback,
Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence, Massinfluence.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.
You don't know what you really want.